Another High School Year in the Life of Friends
by LeiaSedai and Umi-Chan
Summary: Ten high school kids of differentages and backgrounds that share a special outlook are thrown together by chance and form a bond of friendship that will give them a crazy roller coaster ride that might just be the best year of their lives.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Well this is a story about the Bohemians in Highschool (Duh!) Eventually all the cannon couples will happen, but as of write now Maureen just dumped Mark and April and Roger are together. **

**Here are the Boho's Grades:**

**Freshmen: Mimi and Maureen**

**Sophmores: Angel, April, and Allison (she and Benny are nice in this story)**

**Juniors: Mark, and Collins**

**Seniors: Roger, Benny, and Joanne**

**On with the story!**

Maureen Johnson stood by the door of room 204, waiting impatiently for her first period biology class to begin. Suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. "Ahh!" she screamed, more surprised than scared.

"What, no hello for you old buddy?" asked the owner of the hand, her neighbor Tom Collins who was like an older brother to her.

"Hey, Collins!" she exclaimed, getting over her shock.

"Mo, we haven't talked since school started!" he said. "Fill me in."

"Well, what do you want to know?"

"Everything!" he exclaimed as though it were obvious. "Who your new friends are, what clubs and teams you want to join, what you think of your teachers, what classes you're taking, what you think of high school… Mo, this is your Freshman year. Your one big chance to establish yourself as a Bohemian. How can you expect me not to take an interest?"

"Well…" Maureen started, not totally sure where to begin on 'everything,' "High school is much cooler than Middle School, that's for sure. We have much more freedom." She tried to remember what all he wanted to know. "Umm… well I want to join the Speech and Debate Team, and be in the plays. Oh, and play softball, and be class president. Of course, I might try out for the dance team too… or maybe the choir instead, or maybe both…"

She trailed off. Collins laughed. "Are you trying to be the next Joanne Jefferson or something?"

"Who's Joanne Jefferson?" asked Maureen who had been valiantly trying to meet as many people as she could for the last week and hadn't run across anyone by that name.

"Joanne's a Senior," Collins explained. "She's the smartest person in her class… I can say that only since I'm a Junior, so she's not competing with me to be smartest. Anyway she's the captain of the Speech and Debate Team, she plays volleyball, she's the president of the student body, she writes a column for the school newspaper, she's a student ambassador to the Parent Teacher Association, and I don't even know what else she does."

"Wow," said Maureen. "I don't think I'll try to do that much, I just want to have fun… and be well known of course."

"That's my girl." The bell rang and Collins ruffled her hair and walked off, laughing at her indignant expression as she walked into biology trying to fix her hair and make a grand appearance, all while wondering when she might meet this Joanne Jefferson person.

Maureen wondered if her Algebra classroom moved. Everyday single day this week she had gotten lost on her way there. She decided to try to use landmarks to find it. "Let me see here… past the potted plant… oh, wait that's the way to health. Down these stairs… no … back up … there's Mrs. Pink's room. I think I'm going the right way…just around this corner…"

Upon turning the corner Maureen was blocked by a ring of large boys, surrounding two smaller figures. "Excuse me, but I think you lot should get to class." She said, trying to break up what appeared to be a bullying session.

"And I think we should be here teaching this pretty boy that we don't accept his kind, or would it be her kind?"

The bullies followers guffawed and pointed, but one of the figures in the center of the circle bravely said, "I'm more of a man than you'll ever be, and more of a woman than you'll ever get."

The bully was clearly none to bright for it took him several minutes to understand these words, but once he did he clearly took umbrage for he growled and stepped closer to the center of the circle, flexing his muscles.

"Leave Angel alone!" exclaimed the other figure in the center of the circle who Maureen suddenly recognize as Mimi Marquez, a girl in her history class.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Maureen, barging in front of the bully and blocking his path, her courage fueled by Mimi's courage and her own sense of injustice.

The bully knocked her aside and she fell into the wall where she banged her head on the wall to the great amusement of the bullies followers and sympathy from Mimi and Angel.

"You see," explained the bully, seemingly oblivious to the pain shooting through Maureen's body. "We'll forgive you girls for trying to defend your even girlier friend since you're Freshmen, but since he's a sophomore he need to know that that sort of thing is not tolerated here."

It looked as though things were about to turn nasty, but at that point two Seniors- a cute boy with light brown shaggy hair and a leather jacket and a black girl with frizzy hair who was dressed conservatively- and rounded the corner.

Seeing and assessing the situation in a flash the guy pushed the bully and his followers out of the way roughly and helped their three victims to their feet.

"Davis, this isn't fair. We were just trying to-" said the bully

"Stuff it and pick on somebody your own size," said the girl, her voice full of disdain. "Just because you have low self-esteem doesn't mean we should all have to suffer."

"I'm bleeding!" exclaimed one of the bully's followers. "Someone will hear about this and mark my words, you'll be in deep trouble!"

"If you tell anyone, you'll be the one in trouble. Harassment is against school rules too," the girl countered.

"And no teacher would ever believe you over Joanne," said the boy as if this closed the case."

Apparently it did for with that the boys slinked off, muttering threateningly among themselves.

"Sorry, about them," said the girl. "They're total losers. Nobody likes them, but they show up at quite a few parties anyway. Every week they pick somebody new to bully. I guess, you're just lucky this time." She smiled wryly. "Anyway, are you okay?"

"Fine," all three victims muttered. "Thanks for, well…" Angel trailed off.

"It's okay. My pleasure in fact. If it helps, which it might not, you can all sit with us at lunch in case they come back."

"We should probably all get to class now," pointed out Mimi, "so, I'll see you all at lunch."

"Great!" said the girl, before hurrying off.

"Wait!" exclaimed Maureen. There was something about this girl that fascinated her, she knew she would see her at lunch, but she had to know now. "What's your name?"

"Joanne Jefferson," she shouted over her shoulder and the buzz of people and with that she was gone.

**Review! C'mon peeps, show me some love!**


	2. The Nicest Kids in Town

Mimi Marquez walked into lunch. On the outside she looked calm, cool, and like she already ruled the school, but on the inside she was incredibly grateful she would be sitting with some people who actually seemed to like her for her and not her looks. Now if only she could find them…

"Yoo-Hoo! Mimi!" called Maureen, causing half the school to look up. Mimi made her way over to a table that was nicely crowded, but not overly so, pulled up a chair, and sank into a seat between Maureen and Angel.

"Hey, I'm glad you could join us," said the black girl from earlier. "You're Mimi right? I'm Joanne, this is Collins (she pointed to the tall guy on the other side of Maureen who seemed to be teasing her about something), you know Maureen and Angel, this is Mark (a skinny, nerdy looking, white boy), April (a smiling redhead who was filing her nails while eating a unique lunch of sushi ), and of course you met Roger earlier. He's still in the lunch line."

"He still _buys _his lunch and he's a senior?" Mimi asked incredulously. "I did that once, on Wednesday, and trust me, I'm not doing it ever, ever again."

"Yeah, well, that's Roger. You get used to it." Said Mark in the resigned voice of one who has long since given up trying to change a friends ways.

"I don't. It's gross!" said April, wrinkling her nose. I mean how can he eat that stuff! The best of it smells like cat food and the worst…smells like what cat food can become."

"But I like cats!" exclaimed Maureen, displaying both excessive optimism and bizarre randomness.

"Well, yeah, but you wouldn't want to eat their food, would you?" asked April.

"No, but they're so cute!" squealed Maureen.

As the conversation turned to cats, a subject Mimi had very little experience with, Mimi sat back and watched. Although she had known them for a very short amount of time she liked them very well already.

Unlike other groups she had encountered they weren't at all cliquey and accepted her Maureen, and Angel very readily. Indeed Maureen, Angel, and April's conversation had become a shoe comparison and Collins and Mark were looking on, laughing at the girls.

Just then Roger arrived. He first greeted Maureen, Mimi, and Angel, "Hey, I'm glad you could join us. The bullies haven't given you any more trouble have they?"

Three heads shook 'no' and Roger took a seat and kept talking. "Anyway, I can tell you've been saying that these school lunches are gross, but really, I'm far too lazy to pack my own and they aren't that bad. I mean look at this salad. The only thing that seems to be wrong is that Bunnicula got to it first. That's Bunnicula the vampire rabbit for those of you who had no child hood." He stared pointedly at Joanne who grimaced.

"Well, I'm sorry, the only Disney movie I ever saw was _The Lion King_!" she exclaimed.

This announcement met stunned silence, except for Roger sniggering in the background, which was finally broken by Maureen who said in a hushed voice, "You mean you've never seen _Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs_?"

"No"

"_Pinocchio_?"

"No"

"_Bambi_?"

"No"

"_Cinderella_?"

"No"

"_Alice In Wonderland_?"

"No"

"_Peter Pan_?"

"No"

"_Lady And The Tramp_?"

"No"

"_Sleeping Beauty_?"

"No"

"_The Jungle Book_?"

"No"

"_The Aristocats_?"

"No"

"_The Rescuers_?"

"No"

"_Beauty And The Beast_?"

"No"

It was clear that Maureen intended to continue the questioning and Joanne planned to continue answering calmly, hiding a smile as Maureen's incredulity grew. Luckily Mark intervened, "Maureen, we get the point. You don't have to list every Disney movie you can think of!"

"Are you absolutely sure you haven't seen any others?" Maureen asked Joanne, still unwilling to believe this.

"I'm sure," said Joanne, slightly exasperated.

"Well, you'll just have to come over to my house tonight and watch them all!" exclaimed Maureen cheerily.

"Wouldn't that take a while?" asked Joanne.

"Well at least the good ones," said Maureen, not deterred in the least. "In fact why don't you all come over and we can have a 'We-Survived-the-first-week-of-school' party and watch Disney movies."

"Are you sure your parents wouldn't mind?" asked Mark.

"Of course!" said Maureen. "They'll be fine. They're out of town after all. My cousin's supposed to watch me, but she'll be out partying anyway."

Joanne laughed, "Well I can't meet right after school since I have to oversee Speech and Debate team tryouts, but after that I'll be their."

"That works out, I'm going to be their trying out!" exclaimed Maureen and April, almost as one.

"Really! That's great! I hope you make it!" said Joanne happily.

"And I've got dance team!" added Mimi.

"I have band practice!" chipped in Roger.

"I guess it looks like we'll meet up at Mo's place around half past four then?" asked Collins.

Just as the bell rang everyone murmured their assent and dashed off to their afternoon classes.

**A/N: I'm back! Sorry it's been so long. ****Obviously the characters are not mine. **

**On a more interesting note all of my chapter titles will be the titles of songs from musicals. The last one was from Flower Drum Song and from now on you can tell me in your review if you know (sorta like a contest) and I will announce winners and the answer in the next chapter. Also if anyone had any Disney movies you want them to watch please tell me, because I have seen very fey.**

**Finally, there was a question abut this so I will clarify: Freshmen9th Grade,Sophmores10th Grade, Juniors 11th Grade, and Seniors12th Grade.**


	3. My Strongest Suite

**Disclaimer: Not Mine! Review Please! C'mon people tell me what you think!**

"Hello, welcome to Speech Team tryouts," Joanne recited surveying the room, "if you remain committed speech and debate can be a very rewarding activity and teach you skills that can be used in many other aspects of your high school career. We do, of course, have fun as well." She surveyed her audience, which was mostly composed of nervous and excited looking freshmen, but also included some, slightly less nervous, sophomores and juniors.

"Now would those of you interested in speech please join our moderator, Mrs. Gajere, on the left side of the room, and those of you interested in debate please join me over here."

Once the small crowd around Joanne had quieted down she addressed them once again, "Will you once again split into two groups, this time those of you who like cats over there and those of you who prefer dogs over here." Once they had complied she continued. "Now you will each pair up with someone from the opposite group and you will each argue for the animal that you don't like as well."

There was a general outcry at this, but Joanne insisted that they follow through since anyone could argue for something they believed in, but it took a good debater to argue convincingly against their own beliefs.

From there, she wandered around, stepping in when arguments grew to heated, politely asking unskilled debaters to leave, and complimenting and advising those who did well.

Soon she came to Maureen who was defending dogs (enthusiastically, if not very factually) against a girl named Ellie who also seemed very good. Joanne stopped to watch, both younger girls oblivious to her presence.

"But dogs are more affectionate! I mean cats will only let you pet them on their terms, but dogs love you unconditionally!" Maureen was saying, complete with empathetic hand motions, all though it was clear that she would rather be defending cats.

"Exactly! Dogs are clingy. Cats don't bother you quite so much and they aren't as needy," said Ellie making a good, if slightly confused point.

April, a returning speech team member, was also watching the debaters. "It seems like we've got a good batch this year."

"Yeah," agreed Joanne. "Once we get them trained up, I could see quite a few going on to regionals or even state." Subconsciously, she was staring at Maureen as she spoke.

Apparently, Maureen was aware, because she turned and smiled, "I take it we make the team then?" She asked, throwing an arm around Ellie.

"Yeah, I guess so," said Joanne, unable to help, but return Maureen's smile.

"Good. Otherwise I'm not sure I'd let you come to the party!"

_PARTY TIME OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo PARTY TIME_

Once all seven of the Bohemians were assembled in Maureen's living room with chips, soda, and candy Maureen began to reel off all the Disney movies she owned. "Depending on which one we pick we can probably watch around four, before you guys have to go home. Of course we could make this a sleepover, but…for now what do you want to watch?"

"_The Emperor's New Groove!"_

_"Winnie the Pooh!"_

_"The Lion King!"_

"She's already seen that one!"

"_Aladdin!"_

_"Cinderella!"_

_"Sleeping Beauty!"_

_"Mulan!"_

"_The Little Mermaid_!"

"Those princess movies are to girly!"

"Are not!"

"People!" exclaimed Mark. "Be calm! Why don't we have Joanne pick since this is in her honor."

Everyone seemed to agree to this and Joanne began to weed through the pile of movies as everyone else chatted and munched on their snacks.

Finally Joanne looked up. "Okay, you'll have to tell me if these are any good, but I've picked _The Fox and the Hound, Mulan, Aladdin, _and _Beauty and the Beast._

After some debate they decided to watch the movies in the order Joanne had named them.

As the timeless story unfolded, Maureen looked over at her new friend. Joanne was not bored nor did she think it silly as Maureen had feared she would. She was just as wrapped up in the story as any of them, and indeed, it seemed that they had all been transformed back into children who truly believed in and rooted for the characters.

Watching the smiles spread across their faces in childish joy as friendship triumphed on screen, Maureen knew she would treasure this moment forever. She also knew that there was no question of a break between movies.

Indeed they launched right into _Mulan_, the end of which left even Roger cheering for the heroine and caused the boys to stop grumbling 'princess movie' under their breath as they began.

All too soon there was a knock at the door: Mimi's mother had come to pick her up. Indeed it seemed like no time at all had passed, but everyone had to leave.

"Say, Joanne," Maureen said to her final guest, "would you like to stay the night and watch more movies? You could borrow clothes from me."

"Sure," agreed Joanne, causing Maureen's jack-o-lantern grin (temporarily replaced by a sad puppy face as the other's left) to return.

_Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, _and _Hercules _were added to Joanne's Disney repertoire before Maureen drifted off to sleep, leaving Joanne alone with the moonbeams and her thoughts.

'It's funny,' Joanne thought, 'but there's something about this Maureen girl. Normally I'm not at all spontaneous and don' make friends very quickly, but I relate to Maureen like no one ever before. I guess I've been kind of lonely my whole life, but never realized it.'

It seemed odd that she was wearing pajamas belonging to a girl she hadn't known the name of earlier that day, but that was life. Joanne, it now seemed, had already missed out on more of life than she cared to repeat. Even as a child she had seen few Disney movies, they had seemed contrite and silly, but there was a magic to them, a sparke, a sense of wonder, that had been lacking in the adult's world she had been trying so hard to become a part of for as long as she could remember.

Maureen had that same sparkle as the movies. The same color, that seemed to be missing from Joanne's life entirely.

'She's so pretty, just like Belle' Joanne thought, naming her new favorite Disney princess as she looked at the girl next to her's sleeping form, 'I could almost…' 'Joanne what are you thinking!' she scolded herself Maureen is another girl, not to mention for years younger than you. You're just tired, that's what's wrong with you.'

She turned over and was immediately asleep, but her feelings would contine no matter how much sleep she got for she was not in fact being silly so much as falling in love.


	4. Something Bad

The next Monday found April nervously scanning her new first period math class. Apparently she was 'too smart' for her geometry class and was therefore to moved to Algebra Two Honors, despite the fact it was normally an eleventh grade class. Heck, Roger was taking Algebra Two this year and he was senior.   
The only people she knew to have taken Algebra Two as sophomores were Joanne and Collins and everyone knew that they were brilliant as it was.   
Trying to act as though she were in complete control of the situation April scanned the room for a friendly face until she saw a girl who might have been another sophomore. Luckily there was an empty seat next to her.   
"Hi, do you mind if I sit here?" April asked, trying not to sound nervous.   
"Not at all," the girl replied. She was tall with long, wavy, slightly frizzy blond hair and light, luminous blue eyes. Her clothes and makeup marked her as one of 'those' (popular) people, but she seemed just as relieved and glad as April to have found someone friendly and her own age. "By the way I'm Allison Grey. Call me Alli."   
"My name's April. April Ericson," April responded.   
"Oh, April's such a pretty name!" squealed Allison.   
"Thanks. My boyfriend always says it's lucky I was born in the spring or my parents would've named me October," April laughed.   
"Well October might be a unique name, but I like April better," said Alli.   
"Me too."   
They grinned at each other and despite the fact that they belonged to totally different groups April felt that they could become friends. "Who's your boyfriend anyway?" asked Alli.   
"Roger Davis," April responded proudly.   
"The senior?" Alli squealed. "Ooo, he's hot. Not that I would ever cheat on my Benny."   
"Benny as in Benjamin Coffin?" asked April with some trepidation.   
"Yes, but why…" something dawned on Alli and she nodded. "Right we won't tell them we like each other." 

It was common knowledge that until the beginning of last year Benny had been one of the Boho boys. Then the captain of the football team (Alli's older brother as it happened) had asked Benny and Collins to play football. Collins had refused point blank, but Benny had agreed to play.   
As if this betrayal wasn't bad enough Benny had further given in to peer pressure by going to the popular kids parties, hanging out with them, and, eventually, sitting with them at lunch. Who you sat with at lunch was everything and so this was the ultimate betrayal to the rest of the Bohos. To rub salt in already sore wounds there were rumors that Benny had even been bad mouthing his old friends behind their backs.   
"Not a word," agreed April.   
Just then the bell rang. Shortly thereafter the teacher, a batty middle age woman with a feather in her hair for unknown reasons, entered the room. "Does everyone have their homework?" she asked.   
There were quite a few mumbles of 'yes' from not quite awake students and April's panic (temporarily abated by Alli's kindness) returned with vengeance. What had they learned so far? Would she be able to catch up?   
"When I ask a question I want a complete response," the teacher was saying. "I want you all to respond either 'Yes, Ms. Earmuff" or 'No Ms. Earmuff.' And smile when you speak. Is that clear?"   
There were a few mumbled 'yeah right's, but no other response.   
"What was that?" she asked.   
"Yes, Miss Earmuff," they all replied, wearing large, fake smiles.   
"Very good," she praised with an equally large smile. "Now let's try this again. Does everyone have their homework?"   
"Yes, Ms. Earmuff," chorused the class except for April who muttered, "No Ms. Earmuff."   
"What was that?" Ms. Earmuff asked, descending on April like a large bird of prey.   
"I said 'No Ms. Earmuff,'" replied April, trying to keep her patience.   
"You mean to say you don't have your homework?" she asked.   
"Yes, replied April through gritted teeth. Every eye in the classroom was fixed on her, and quite a few people were sniggering. This was just a great introduction to the class, she thought sarcastically.   
"Why?" asked Ms. Earmuff.   
"Well, I just switched over from geometry today, so I didn't know about the assignment…" April trailed off. Surely any reasonable teacher would let her off there.   
Sadly Ms. Earmuff was far from reasonable. "That is no excuse. Now get up."   
"What?" asked April.   
"Get up," repeated Ms. Earmuff.   
"But why?" April asked, completely befuddled by the proceedings. If the old bat was going to give her a detention why didn't she do just that?   
"Just do," hissed Alli from her seat, sounding sympathetic. "She's crazy, but if you do what she says more quickly it'll be less painfully embarrassing over all."   
"Miss Grey, we do not speak out of turn in this class," Ms. Earmuff said, temporarily diverting her laser gaze (and therefore the rest of the class's attention) to Alli and way from April who took advantage of their lack of attention to rise from her seat.   
"Now cover your mouth with your hand," Ms. Earmuff was saying to Alli, "and don't uncover it until you go to history."   
Alli nodded mutely, looking completely weirded out.   
Ms. Earmuff turned back to April. "And just who gave you permission to stand up?"   
"Uhhh…you told me to," said April feeling as though the narrator from the twilight zone would step out at any minute and begin to explain the proceedings as spooky theme music played.   
"In that case, go and stand behind the chalkboard. The rolling one, not the one attached to the wall," Ms. Earmuff said.   
"Umm…okay," April compiled, wondering if any of this would lead to learning any math at all, let alone more advanced math.   
"Now stay there as we go over homework. You'll be completing the assignment tonight and I don't want you to cheat and hear the answers now." April wanted to point out that she could here the answers perfectly well from hear, but decided not to. After all class was crazy enough and if she was lucky she could slide under the radar for the rest of the year.   
…**Of course things never work out that well! Please note that some of the things happening to the Bohos (Who I don't own!) will be lightly based on my real life, so I take complete creative license. Anyway here's Allison. She and Benny (who's actually nice) will play a bigger role in the rest of the story. Thank you all so much for the reviews I love you all, please keep them coming! ** **Speaking of which, ****iloveelphie ****is coorect the title of chapter two is for Hairspray!**   
**Now click the little blue button and review!**


	5. Happy Talk

A/N: I'm back! Okay, sorry it's been so long, but I've been working on other (non-fanfiction) stuff. Anyway I hope you like this one! Last chapter's title was from _Wicked_, Congrats to missxflawless, iloveelphie, and theGREENgirlTHATluvsRENT

Disclaimer: Not mine!

The last Thursday of September found everyone's favorite Bohemians in the biology room a couple of hours after school had ended.

"Remind me again why we're here," grumbled Collins.

"Because April and Angel have to stay after school to watch the mice that their biology class has been feeding steroids and we've kindly agreed to stay with them," sighed Joanne with the resigned air of one who has given the exact same explanation several times over.

"Well, I'm bored! The mice don't do anything!" exclaimed Maureen. "Why do they need watched anyway?"

"We're watching them in case they suddenly develop superpowers," said Roger sarcastically, "or drop dead which is more likely."

"That's mean!" exclaimed Angel who was stroking her mouse protectively. "Don't listen to the mean boy, I'll keep you safe."

Before any of them could comment further on the condition of the mice or their own condition of boredom the door flew open. It admitted a tall senior girl wearing too much makeup who surveyed them the way she would a rather unsavory collection of cafeteria lunches. "I thought Brandon was supposed to be on mouse duty?" she said in a voice as obnoxious as she looked.

"He was but he got sick, so we volunteered to take over," explained April.

"Well, he was supposed to be filming the soccer game," she said in an accusatory tone that implied she blamed them for spoiling her plans, "for the school show. I'm Alexi Darling, the director." She announced as though she expected them to bow upon hearing this. They all merely looked at each other and Angel began drumming a rhythm on one of the mouse's cage.

"I suppose one of you will have to do it," she continued when none of them bowed, sounding about as enthusiastic as they felt. She surveyed the group again and apparently decided Mark was the most normal of all of them for she grabbed his arm. "Come along now…Jonny isn't it."

She dragged Mark from the room, ignoring his weak protests of: "But my name's Mark and I've never used a camera before, I mean I couldn't. . ."

"Poor Markie!" said Maureen.

"I know, what a rude girl!" exclaimed Angel, still drumming.

"She's senior class secretary and more trouble than all the other officers combined," grumbled Joanne.

"Yeah, remember the year she was class president," laughed Roger.

"I prefer not to," said Joanne, but she was grinning.

"What did she do that was so-" April began, but cut herself off with a huge sneeze.

"Are you okay?" asked Angel, still drumming.

"I think it's just a cold I'm getting," replied April thickly, while blowing her nose.

"Well don't get too sick! Semi-formal is Saturday!" exclaimed Roger.

"You two going together, then?" asked Mimi, wondering why she should feel a stab of jealousy.

"Yeah, what about you?" asked Roger.

"No one worth going with has asked me," said Mimi with a small shrug. "So I'm just going by myself."

"Well, that's a good way to meet people without feeling restricted," said Joanne, "Though I'm not sure if I'll be going this year…" she trailed off.

"You have to come!" exclaimed Maureen. "Come with me!" There was a brief silence and Maureen gave a high, nervous laugh, "I mean, as friend, just as friends!"

"Of course I'll go with you…as friends!" Joanne exclaimed, but there was an odd quality to her voice.

"And of course I'm going with Collins, so we can meet up before hand to get ready!" exclaimed Angel, still drumming, cheerily after a rather awkward silence.

"Angel can you please stop that drumming?" asked April politely. "You're driving me crazy, heaven knows how the poor mouse must feel."

"Oh, sorry." Angel stopped her drumming and peered into the cage she had been tapping on to check on the mouse. "Oh no!" she exclaimed, "It jumped from the top of it's wheel and committed suicide! Poor mouse!"

However only Mimi seemed to share her friend's distress. Collins, Maureen, and Roger were laughing over the fate of the mouse and Joanne and April looked more concerned about the implications.

"Who's mouse was it?" asked Joanne.

"Allison Grey's," responded Angel. "She named it Evita. Poor thing."

"Allison? Isn't she the slu- I mean girl that Benny's dating?" asked Roger.

"Yeah, it guess she deserved it then!" said Collins.

"She did not!" exclaimed April vehemently around another bout of sneezing. "she's in my math class and she's really nice. You shouldn't judge her by who she's dating!"

"What do we do, though?" asked Joanne showing her practical side.

"I'll tell you what we do," said Collins, "We get out of here and say the mouse was fine when we left and must have died of natural causes."

"Natural causes?" questioned Roger, sounding incredulous.

"Well, we were feeding them steroids," said April.

"I still feel bad. Poor Evita," lamented Angel as they left.

However before anyone could respond they ran into (almost literally) Mark. He looked absolutely euphoric.

"Did you get a date for semi-formal?" asked Roger, sarcastically.

"No. Better than that. I've found my passion!" he exclaimed dramatically.

"What?" asked several voices at onces.

"Filming! It's wonderful!"


End file.
